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Domus Aurea

The Domus Aurea was the palace that Nero had built after the fire of AD 64, the work of the engineer-architects Severus and Celer. It stretched across the Palatine, Oppian and Caelian hills, with artificial lakes, meadows and vineyards in the very heart of the city. Today you can visit the Oppian Hill pavilion, with some 300 rooms designed more for banqueting than for sleeping; it included an octagonal hall with a revolving dome. After Nero's death the building was buried beneath new constructions, and some young Romans rediscovered it in the 1480s. The paintings, attributed to the workshop of Fabullus, with their grotesques, influenced Renaissance artists such as Pinturicchio and Raphael, who climbed down to study them. Access is via the Colle Oppio, next to the Colosseum. Visits are by advance booking and in small groups; the park offers a virtual reality tour that reconstructs the palace's original appearance.

Things to do at Domus Aurea: 3 missions

• Try the palace's virtual realityWith the ticket that includes the educational tour and virtual reality, explore the reconstruction of Nero's palace and compare it with what you see in the real ruins.
• Discover how light enters the roomsNotice how the architects Severus and Celer lit rooms that are now underground with natural light, and note down which room you think does it best.
• Look for Fabullus's painted grotesquesDuring the tour, find one of the decorative paintings with fantastical motifs attributed to the workshop of Fabullus, the grotesques that Renaissance artists studied.

Near Domus Aurea

Source: Web oficial - Parco archeologico del Colosseo